Jim Lyons comments on business and marketing developments in the Printing and Imaging industry, combining many years of experience with an ever-enthusiastic eye on the future.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Zink makes investment in manufacturing plant

I mentioned earlier in the week, in a post entitled "HP Edgeline hits the streets", that it looks like the printer industry newsmakers from earlier this year, including HP (NYSE HPQ), Memjet, and Zink, are following up their earlier announcements with more of the hard work that leads to real products providing benefits to real customers. Further confirming that trend is today's announcement from Zink that they're buying a manufacturing facility from Konica Minolta. And for those who don't remember Zink's well-covered Demo 2007 announcement here's a refresher -- Zink's "magic" is in the paper and the company touts it as "Zero Ink" technology. So, it's a paper plant they're buying, not an ink plant! (See bizjournal.com for further details.)

And that's not to forget Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE EK), the other leg of the four-legged-stool (sounds dangerous!) of inkjet and/or photo printer announcements from earlier in 2007. They've been shipping their products since March (see "Kodak's inkjets 'Good Enough' per the WSJ"), and they're making news of the own today, with a 2-plus-point stock jump, based around a new (and old) sensor technology that has the potential to remove the flash from photography. Forbe's Carl Gutierrez has a nice piece on the announcement and its implications. Good thing nobody's sitting on a huge flashcube annuity business, I guess!